Panasonic's HIT solar cell hits record 25.6 percent conversion efficiency

Gizmag
Panasonic is reporting a 25.6 percent conversion efficiency for its HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells. This is an improvement of 0.9 percentage points over the 24.7 percent conversion efficiency Panasonic achieved in February 2013, with the company claiming it as a world record for crystalline silicon-based solar cells of a "practical size."(100 cm2) (...) The company says the new record was made possible through further development of its proprietary heterojunction technology, which involves laminating layers of high-quality amorphous silicon onto a monocrystalline silicon substrate. (...) Additionally, unlike the 24.7 percent efficiency solar cells, the new record holders have the electrodes placed on the reverse of the panel as back contacts, allowing the light hitting the cell's surface to be more efficiently directed to the monocrystalline silicon substrate where power is generated. Placing the electrodes on the reverse side has also allowed the resistive loss when the current is fed to the grid electrodes to be reduced.

Two Thin-Film Solar Efficiency Records Broken Last Week

Renewable Energy World
First Solar, one of the world’s largest thin-film PV companies, announced that it set a world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV cells, converting 20.4 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The cell was built at the company's Perrysburg, Ohio, factory. (...)
Stion announced that it produced a 23.2 efficient copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS)-based thin-film cell. This technology puts it within striking range of the most-efficient silicon-based PV cells. The company said it’s already scaled this technology at or above 20.0 percent efficiency on a prototype module (20 cm x 20 cm) and anticipates that it will soon be able to scale it to a larger module. (...)
[T]hin-film embraces a variety of technologies, they’re at different levels of efficiency but all are competing to catch up with silicon PV, which is led as of February 2014 by Panasonic, which has produced silicon cells that convert 24.7 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity.

Inovação nas Células Solares - SIC Notícias

SIC Notícias
Um grupo de investigadores da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa está a trabalhar num projecto que pode vir a revolucionar o preço e uso dos painéis solares. Através de uma forma nova de produzir células solares, estes cientistas desenvolveram uma tecnologia que permite não desperdiçar matéria-prima - o silício -, o que tornará os painéis mais baratos.

24 Percent Efficient n-Type Silicon Solar Cell

Fraunhofer ISE
Fraunhofer ISE [reached a] new record: 24 percent efficiency for a silicon solar cell which uses an n-type base material and a novel concept for the rear contact. The special feature of this cell is a so-called passivated contact covering the entire rear surface.

c-Si solar PV module prices fell 50% in 2012

SolarServer
NPD Solarbuzz reports that crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) average selling prices fell an average of 50% year-over-year in 2012, the steepest decline in four years of annual declines. (...) “Amongst other things, 2012 will be remembered as a particularly difficult year for producers of c-Si PV modules,” notes Barker. “Average sales prices (ASPs) declined at a fast pace during the year, despite frequent announcements from module suppliers that pricing was about to stabilize and then rebound.”(...) [According to Solarbuzz] c-Si PV module prices have fallen over 80% in the last four years. He notes that in 2013 overcapacity still exists, with a 30 GW end-market being supplied by a 45 GW manufacturing capacity.

Schott Solar to quit crystalline silicon PV manufacturing

SolarServer
Citing "sever deterioration in market conditions" Schott Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) has announced that it will close its crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing business in 2012. (...) The company will continue to manufacturing amorphous silicon thin film PV modules in Jena, Germany, as well as components for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Schott has more than 54 years of experience in PV manufacturing. The company began producing PV cells for space travel in 1958, and for terrestrial applications in the 1960's. The company began series production of PV modules in Europe in 1978.
A large number of German PV manufacturers have either left the business or declared insolvency since December 2012, including former PV manufacturing market leader Q-Cells SE, Inventux, SOLON SE, Soltecture GmbH and Sovello GmbH.

France drafts rules for 10% FIT bonus for PV products made in Europe

SolarServer
The French Department of Ecology for Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing has drafted a rule to create a 10% bonus to the nation's feed-in tariff (FIT) for use of solar photovoltaic (PV) components produced in the European Economic Area (EEA) [which also includes Norway]. (...) The regulation specifies that at least 2/3 of the PV production processes for crystalline silicon technology from silicon ingots to PV modules must be performed in the EEA to qualify for the bonus. (...) This would mean that both the slicing of wafers and processing of wafers to cells, or the slicing of wafers and assembling of cells into modules, or alternately the processing of wafers to cells and assembly of cells into modules, must take place in EEA member states.
The rule did not mention thin-film PV modules, and is scheduled to take effect from January 1st, 2013.

Silver-free heterojunction silicon solar cells

Imec news
At the 21st International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference in Fukuoka, Japan, Kaneka and imec present silver-free heterojunction silicon solar cells. The results were obtained by applying copper electroplating technology, which was developed by Kaneka based on imec’s existing copper electroplating technology, A conversion efficiency of more than 21% was achieved in 6-inch silicon substrates with an electroplated copper contact grid on top of the transparent conductive oxide layer.

SCHOTT announces improved efficiencies with Quasimono wafers, PV cells using low-cost metal contacts

SolarServer
SCHOTT Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) has reached 19.9% efficiency with wafers made using its Quasimono wafers.
"With Quasimono, SCHOTT Solar has now developed a new technique for manufacturing full-square high-performance wafers that contain a high monocrystalline share that is significantly more cost-effective than the standard processes used in the past," declared SCHOTT in a press statement. (...) SCHOTT notes that the efficiencies that it has reached with PV cells made from Quasimono wafers come close to the record efficiencies that it achieved with monocrystalline PV cells. SCHOTT's development team is currently further refining the process, which is supported by the German government as part of the Quasimono research project.

Las VeGaS project to replace silver contacts with nickel-copper plating
The 18% efficiency that SCHOTT has reached using multicrystalline PV cells with copper contacts is part of its Las VeGaS project, which seeks to largely replace the silver contacts in PV cells with less expensive nickel-copper plating. If successful, this would reduce the manufacturing costs of metallization by more than half.

JinkoSolar offers explanation, remediation for alleged toxic release at Haining PV cell factory

SolarServer
On September 15th - 17th, 2011 residents of Hongxiao, an adjacent village [to the Jinkosolar PV cell factory at Haining], gathered to protest the death of fish in a local waterway, with some protesters breaking into offices and destroying company property. On September 17th, 2011, JinkoSolar voluntarily closed the Haining plant.
Silicon wafer texturing and etching generate a fluoride solution as a by-product, which results in fluoride wastes. JinkoSolar (...) explained that a change in waste management contractors caused a delay in solid fluoride waste pickup, resulting in outdoor storage of waste. [D]ue to heavy rains in late August, fluoride waste "may" have leaked into a water channel near the factory.
JinkoSolar estimates that on September 5th, 2011, it became aware of the incident and commenced actions to clean up the affected area. The company isolated the water channel section and treated the affected water and soil, as well as constructing retaining walls, and building a water collection systems to prevent leakage. JinkoSolar has agreed to pay compensation for crop damage, as well as the death of any livestock or wildlife that may have been affected by the incident. It also notes that local environmental authorities are continually conducting water quality testing.

China to double solar capacity by year end: report

Reuters
China will double its solar capacity to around 2GW by the end of the year as the world's largest solar-panel maker ramps up domestic installation, a local paper said on Saturday citing a government-linked think tank.
To encourage the construction of more solar power plants, the [National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)] has set unified benchmark grid feed-in power tariffs for solar projects for the first time ever earlier this month.
The rates, set at 1 yuan for each kWh, were higher than many of those that were proposed and accepted by state-owned solar-power developers in China's previous official tenders, which ranged from 0.73 to 0.99 yuan for each kWh last year.
The solar feed-in tariff (...) could drop below 0.80 yuan (12.5 cents) for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2015, which would be on par with conventional coal-fired power tariffs by that time, according to s report by the Energy Research Institute.
The report also said China was expected to produce 90,000 tonnes of polysilicon this year, representing 80 percent of its domestic demand.

>20% efficiency modules

SunPower press release
Sunpower launched the SunPower™ E20 series of solar panels, the industry's first commercially-available solar panels to achieve total area efficiencies of 20 percent or more. The new 96-cell E20 solar panels are available in 333-watt and 327-watt models for rooftop installations and featureSunPower's 22.4 percent efficient patented Maxeon™ cell technology. The all-back contact Maxeon solar cell captures significantly more sunlight and conducts more electrical current than conventional solar cells, and holds the world record for efficiency among commercially available, mass-produced solar cells.

Upheavals in the Chinese Polysilicon Market May Lead to Further Solar PV Cost Reductions

Renewable Energy News Article

The standard states that any new solar polysilicon manufacturing facility must adhere to the following:

• Facilities need to have an annual production capacity of at least 3,000 tons; 
• Facilities may not be situated within 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of any nature reserve, headwater areas or major residential areas; 
• The electricity consumption of the solar-grade polysilicon reduction must be less than 80kWh/kg and further reduced to lower than 60kwh/kg by the end of 2011 
• The recycle rate of silicon tetrachloride, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen in the reduction tail gas shall be not less than 98.5 percent, 99 percent and 99 percent, respectively. 

Finally, solar polysilicon production lines whose integrated electricity consumption is higher than 200kWh/kg must be eliminated by the end of 2011.

Finding PV's Next Big Cost Reductions

Comment on Renewable Energy News Article

Cost is one of the biggest barriers to bringing solar to scale. Tremendous strides have been made to date -- module prices have come down 50-70% in the past two years alone. Where are the next cost reductions going to come from?
(...) even without a radical breakthrough, there are plenty of cost reduction opportunities in today's technology. Both balance of systems (BOS) and silicon raw material supply offer promising paths to lower costs.(...) [N]ear-term reductions of more than 50% by simply scaling and implementing current best-practices. That alone would reduce total BOS costs to around $0.60 to $0.90/W for large rooftop or ground-mounted installations.

SunPower Announces Efficiency Record
SunPower announced today that it produced a full-scale solar cell in one of its factories in the Philippines that can convert 24.2 percent of the sunlight that strikes it into electricity, which constitutes a record in the industry. (...) The new record cell was produced using the same basic technology SunPower uses in its production line today [22 percent efficiency modules].

RPP Solar cria 1900 postos de trabalho em Abrantes
O Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP) assinou hoje um protocolo de cooperação na área da formação com a empresa RPP Solar, que vai criar 1900 postos de trabalho em Abrantes através de um Projecto Integrado de Energia Solar (PIES). (...) Instalada em Pego, Abrantes, num terreno com 82 hectares de área, esta nova fábrica de painéis fotovoltaicos, vocacionada para a exportação, visa “agregar” toda a cadeia de produção de energia solar, e implicará um investimento global de 1072 milhões de euros (ME) e a criação de 1.900 postos de trabalho, até 2013. (...) “[O]s contratos assinados permitem dizer que já temos tudo vendido e o produto vai ser todo escoado a partir de Abrantes numa lógica patriota e de aposta na exportação”, apontando para uma estimativa de “1700 camiões por ano, com 600 painéis cada, a carregarem painéis para toda a Europa”. (...) Com recrutamento de base local e regional, a RPP Solar vai receber 128 milhões de euros de incentivos, ao abrigo do Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN), sendo 58 milhões de incentivos financeiros e os restantes 70 milhões de incentivos fiscais. Com o arranque de produção anunciado para Julho, com 670 colaboradores a contratar, o projecto é composto por cinco fases, duas em 2010, outras duas no próximo ano e a última, e também a de maior capacidade instalada e com um investimento de 400 milhões de euros, no ano 2012, então já com 1900 trabalhadores.

Worldwide Solar PV Market Reaches Record High of 6.43 Gigawatt in 2009
Worldwide solar photovoltaic installations reached a record high of 6.43gigawatt (GW) in 2009, a 6%Y/Y growth, according to the latest Marketbuzz 2010 Report from Solarbuzz, an international solar energy market research and consulting company, and a division of The NPD Group. In addition, the company reported that the PV industry generated $38billion in global revenues in 2009, while successfully raising more than $13.5billion in equity and debt, up 8% on the prior year. (...) European countries accounted for 4.75GW, or 74% of world demand in 2009. The top three countries in Europe were Germany, Italy and Czech Republic, which collectively accounted for 4.07GW. All three countries experienced soaring demand with Italy becoming the second largest market in the world. In contrast, Spanish demand in 2009 collapsed to just 4% of its prior year level. The third largest market in the world was the US, which grew 36% to 485MW. Following closely behind was a rejuvenated Japan, ranked fourth and growing 109% Y/Y.
Worldwide solar cell production reached a consolidated figure of 9.34GW in 2009, up from 6.85GW a year earlier, with thin film production accounting for 18% of that total. China and Taiwan production continued to build share and now accounts for 49% of global cell production. Of total European demand, net cell imports accounted for 74% of the total. The top seven polysilicon manufacturers had 114,500 tons per annum of capacity in 2009, up 92%Y/Y, while the top eight wafer manufacturers accounted for 32.9% of global wafer capacity in 2009. Solar cell production exceeding the market demand caused the weighted crystalline silicon module price average for 2009 to crash 38% from the prior year level. This reduction in crystalline silicon prices also had the effect of eroding their percentage premium to thin film factory gate pricing.

More record solar cells

Mitsubishi Electric announced that it has achieved a record conversion efficiency of 14.8% in a 5mm x 5mm [triple junction] thin-film silicon photovoltaic cell. [The same company also announced] a 19.3% efficiency rating for a practically-sized polycrystalline silicon PV cell of 100 squared centimeters or larger, with the PV cell measuring approximately 15 cm x 15 cm x 200 micrometers (...) The second world record, achieved with the same technologies [basically reducing the resistive losses] in an ultra-thin polycrystalline silicon PV cell measuring approximately 15 cm x 15 cm x 100 micrometers, is an efficiency rating of 18.1%.
Kyocera Corporation announced that it has achieved a new world record of 16.6% module efficiency (aperture-area efficiency of 17.3%) for multicrystalline silicon solar modules using 54 cells in the development stage. To achieve this record, Kyocera further improved its proprietary "Back Contact" technology and module design to optimize the performance of each cell, thus increasing overall energy conversion efficiency. [Kyocera had announced an energy conversion efficiency of 18.5% for individual solar cells in the development stage.]

Enhanced absorption and carrier collection in Si wire arrays for photovoltaic applications
To achieve competitive conversion efficiencies, [silicon nano-]wires must absorb sunlight over a broad range of wavelengths and incidence angles, despite occupying only a modest fraction of the array’s volume. Here, we show that arrays having less than 5% areal fraction of wires can achieve up to 96% peak absorption, and that they can absorb up to 85% of day-integrated, above-bandgap direct sunlight. In fact, these arrays show enhanced near-infrared absorption, which allows their overall sunlight absorption to exceed the ray-optics light-trapping absorption limit for an equivalent volume of randomly textured planar Si, over a broad range of incidence angles. We furthermore demonstrate that the light absorbed by Si wire arrays can be collected with a peak external quantum efficiency of 0.89, and that they show broadband, near-unity internal quantum efficiency for carrier collection through a radial semiconductor/liquid junction at the surface of each wire. The observed absorption enhancement and collection efficiency enable a cell geometry that not only uses 1/100th the material of traditional wafer-based devices, but also may offer increased photovoltaic efficiency owing to an effective optical concentration of up to 20 times.

Top Ten Solar Trends in 2009
A summary of the top stories of the year in the photovoltaic world: link to Greentech Media.